Solar energy using photovoltaic effect requires active semiconducting materials to convert light into electricity. Currently, solar cells based on silicon are the dominating technology due to their high conversion efficiency. Recently, solar cells based on organic materials showed interesting features, especially on the potential of low cost in materials and processing. Judging from the recent success in organic light emitting diodes based on a reverse effect of photovoltaic effect, organic solar cells are very promising. Bulk hetero junction made from phase separated blends of semiconducting polymers and fullerenes is a popular structure that has been adopted for polymer solar cells.
There is a need in the art for polymer solar cells that exhibit increased solar conversion efficiency.